Lewandowski stressed that Manafort was under FISA court-approved surveillance and if the Trump campaign had known that, he wouldn't have been brought in.

"I think there's probably some liability there that no one from the government ever informed the leading presidential candidate that you've got a potential crook or at least someone who's under investigation," Lewandowski said. "If Paul Manafort was doing something illegal, maybe somebody should have alerted us to it."

He explained that Trump officials found out about Manafort's legal jeopardy at the same time the public did after reports surfaced in the media.

Lewandowski also downplayed Manafort's role in the Trump campaign, explaining that he was a brought in as a "delegate hunter," in case there was a contested convention, since Manafort had experience in that area from 1976.

"That job morphed into him becoming the campaign chairman," Lewandowski said. "Once [the convention] had occurred, he had no core competency to run the campaign."

On Monday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office announced that Manafort was working on an op-ed with a colleague “assessed to have ties” to a Russian intelligence service despite a court order that he not discuss his upcoming trial publicly.

Broadcasting live from the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md. Wednesday, Sean Hannity blasted the media for continuing to criticize President Trump while ignoring his accomplishments.